In the Mediterranean Sea can be found microplastic 250 billion as revealed by scientific expedition carried out in 2010 by the European program "endangered Mediterranean (MED according to its acronym in English). The main objective of this program, which ends in 2013, is to quantify the distribution of plastic pollution and better understand its dynamics in the Mediterranean Sea. The term is usually defined as microplastic plastic particles smaller than 5 mm, so most times invisible to the naked eye.
Samples were taken at a depth of 20 cm at 40 sites located in the northwestern basin of the Mediterranean Sea, mostly near France and northern Italy. Ninety percent of the samples contained microplastic and some could even see up to six times more micro-fragments of plastic in plankton, which means that the marine biomass is dominated largely by the plastics. In general, there were 115,000 micro-particles of floating debris per square meter in the Mediterranean Sea, reaching a peak of 892,000 p/m2. The concentration of plastic waste in the Mediterranean is similar to that measured in the North Atlantic or the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" where the density of plastic waste is enormous. However, it must be careful in extrapolating these preliminary results to the entire Mediterranean Sea, as the places that were sampled were geographically limited.
Samples were taken at a depth of 20 cm at 40 sites located in the northwestern basin of the Mediterranean Sea, mostly near France and northern Italy. Ninety percent of the samples contained microplastic and some could even see up to six times more micro-fragments of plastic in plankton, which means that the marine biomass is dominated largely by the plastics. In general, there were 115,000 micro-particles of floating debris per square meter in the Mediterranean Sea, reaching a peak of 892,000 p/m2. The concentration of plastic waste in the Mediterranean is similar to that measured in the North Atlantic or the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" where the density of plastic waste is enormous. However, it must be careful in extrapolating these preliminary results to the entire Mediterranean Sea, as the places that were sampled were geographically limited.
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